Americans Have Right to Know About GMOs

WASHINGTON- Vermont's mandatory GMO labeling law will go into effect on July 1, 2016. Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for EWG, said:

Americans should have the right to know what’s in their food and how its produced, just like consumers on 64 other nations. If Congress acts to craft a GMO labeling system, Congress should ensure that any GMO disclosure is national, mandatory, and allows consumers to determine whether food has been produced with genetic engineering at a glance. 

Congress should take the time needed to craft a solution that works for industry and works for consumers and should not be bullied into action. Many food companies have already changed their labels to comply with Vermont’s new law, and the state will not enforce their new law until 2017 due to the six month grace period. We hope food and farm organizations will stop making baseless claims about “chaos” in the marketplace and instead work with Congress to give consumers what they want. 

This issue is simple: consumers should be trusted to make their own food choices and should not have to rely on web sites or toll-free numbers to know what’s in their food. As a panel of National Academy of Sciences recently noted, mandatory GMO labels will allow consumers to make choices that reflect their values. While we prefer a national solution, all of the state laws that have passed or may soon pass would be satisfied by a simple “produced with genetic engineering” disclosure. 

What’s more, GMO labeling will not increase food prices. How do we know? Because food prices have not increased in other nations and because food giants have told us they will not increase food prices as a result of Vermont’s new law. 

We urge Congress to simply give consumers what they want — a national, GMO labeling solution on the package.

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